


The Ruse

by wily_one24



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Ficlet, Tumblr Prompt, angsty babies in love, not these ladies, who wants a happy ending?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 17:51:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7855060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wily_one24/pseuds/wily_one24
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I should kill this human.” Non sneers in her face. “For speaking your name.”</p>
<p>Over his shoulder, Alex can see Astra shrug, barely even looking at them as she focuses on the machinery in front of her. She blinks, gasping at the burning building in her lungs. </p>
<p>“Then kill her.” That voice, cold and careless, deep in timber, is at once too familiar and too strange to be the one laughing in her apartment not two days ago. “What do I care?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ruse

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr prompt: "I don't know if I should kiss you or slap you."
> 
> Warning: Unpleasant scenes of mild torture.

***

“Astra!”

She’s an idiot, of course she’s an idiot, and Alex would be kicking herself right now for trusting the woman if she could manage to get her feet on solid ground. Instead, she’s thrown against a solid stone outcropping, several feet above the ground, feet scrabbling uselessly in the air, and a very tight hand closing around her throat. Her fingernails useless against the skin, but scratching anyway. 

“I should kill this human.” Non sneers in her face. “For speaking your name.”

Over his shoulder, Alex can see Astra shrug, barely even looking at them as she focuses on the machinery in front of her. She blinks, gasping at the burning building in her lungs. 

“Then kill her.” That voice, cold and careless, deep in timber, is at once too familiar and too strange to be the one laughing in her apartment not two days ago. “What do I care?”

Non’s eyes glint with a sickening sort of vicious victory. 

As Alex’s vision begins to blur, her throat closing under the steely pressure of Non’s grip, she does not remember the rooftop when Astra had first agreed to oin their side, tentative way Astra had smiled at her the first time, the time she had brushed a finger along the back of her hand. Alex certainly doesn’t remember the feel of hot breath as Astra’s mouth had suckled, only a little, just enough to promise more one day, at the side of her neck underneath her ear. 

What she pictures is a small white envelope in the top drawer of her bedside table, Kara’s name scrawled across the front, and how she’d hoped it would be a long, long time before her sister ever had to read it.

She should have known the plan would go wrong the second she’d woken to an empty apartment and no sign of the General. 

She’s blacking out, strangely grateful for the exit that has more honor than the bloody beating she knows Non is capable of. 

“Or you could keep her alive.” Comes the sweetened voice, less cold but a lot more calculating. “She is close with my niece. Hold this one in your hands and you hold Supergirl.”

Air, sweet, sweet oxygen floods into her lungs as Non’s grip loosens. 

“Get Supergirl’s support, even if it only for show, and overthrowing the humans will be much simpler.”

Astra is caressing the digital display in front of her, fingers gliding over buttons and levers that glow in sickly low colored lights. 

In front of her face, Non’s head quirks to the side, his eyes travel up and down her body. It’s not sexual, he has absolutely no love for humans, he’s assessing her, but the threat is just as nauseating as the pain. 

His free hand comes up to grab her wrist, pulling it away from her body, and she struggles, not knowing how to do anything else, wishing she was able to stay strong and not give him the satisfaction of her fear and begging. 

But even Alex knows what the stretching of her pinkie finger means before the audible snapping of bone and no gritting of teeth is enough to stop the scream that bubbles up out of her throat. 

The second snapping of bone is louder, harsher, more devastating and it takes Alex several seconds to realize that it was not her own. She looks up into gray eyes, closer than she ever expected them to be. Astra standing just behind Non, her hands on either side of his head and his head twisted sickeningly to the side. 

“I am sorry, Alexandra.” Blank and emotionless again, Astra drops the body and reaches out to stop Alex slumping completely on the ground. “The ruse was necessary.”

She is numb and stupid with adrenaline and relief and the totality of the outcome takes several more seconds to hit her with the severity. 

But she is alive. 

She can breathe. 

And Astra did not betray her, betray them all. 

“Jesus Christ, Astra.” She finally pants when she can, still sucking in as much air as possible. “I don’t know whether to kiss you or slap you.”

There is a flicker behind Astra’s eyes, a hint at something shared. 

“At any other time, Brave One, I would suggest the kissing.” Then Alex watches as her shoulders slump and her face turns downward. “But I just killed my husband, it is hardly the time.”

The defeat is almost painful to watch and Alex does not, cannot, look at the floor, at the body dropped there. 

She reaches out and flinches when Astra draws back. 

“I would like to be alone. But you are safe now. Your people are safe.”

Alex blinks and walks out of the compound with heavy steps. 

Alone. 

***


End file.
